Gardening -

[ScottinAtlanta]

Prepare soil, build beds, plant seeds, pot up seedlings, plant out seedlings, fertilise, prune, stake, spray, pray:

20% of plants lost due to disease
5% of plants lost due to accidents (broken stems)
5% of plants lost to animals (chewed stems)

70% of plants produce fruits!

60% loss of fruits due to squirrels and birds
10% loss of fruits due to worms
5% loss due to BER

EATEN by me:
25% of fruits produced by 70% of plants!

That's gardening!

[Tania]

Scott,

I'd say that a good percentage, given all the challenges

Tatiana

[peppero]

Scott we just 'pays our monies and takes our chances'.

jon

[Cheryl2017]

Yes, I call it the $500 tomato. HA HA

[tlintx]

This is why I don't really really spray or fuss over them much (but my results aren't stellar). Just can't afford to invest enough into the homegrown gamble to make it really pay off! But it is my hobby, so I put a little more into it than I would otherwise.

I think the key is to get that 70% pool as big as possible by planting as many plants as will fit (and then some)!

[brokenbar]

Gardeners, ranchers, farmers...worlds biggest gamblers! You can do everything absolutely right and Mother nature can screw you to the wall! Some years you have "The Talk" with yourself..."I swear to God I am not growing a garden next year. I cannot justify the waste of money and time. I can buy canned veggies cheaper than i can produce them..." Then comes the winter onslaught of garden catalogs and before you know it, you have a greenhouse full of seedlings. I have no idea why we do it. We must have a gardening gene that over-rides all of our attempts to escape the madness. We are either eternal optimists or gigantic fools...I know which I am!

[Worth1]

To economically grow a garden you must have several things in place.
If any one these things are missing then it becomes an expensive hobby.

Large amount of fertile soil. (Garden spot.)
Cheap water supply or ample rainfall.
Cheap source of labor. (family/kids)
Time to put up produce in jars.

We all (or should) know that the more you can produce any product the cheaper it becomes to produce said product.
And lastly the willingness to eat what you grow and not much else.
This is what we did when I grew up and it worked.
We purchased very little from the store and only ate what we grew or raised.
I was in my late teens and on my own before I ever had many of the things we eat today.

Worth

[tlintx]

I am slowly starting to compensate for some of our normally purchased produce, which is great. Fortunately, I can grow greens for salad year round here. Really looking forward to planting a lot more once it cools down!

Originally Posted by brokenbar

Then comes the winter onslaught of garden catalogs and before you know it, you have a greenhouse full of seedlings. I have no idea why we do it. We must have a gardening gene that over-rides all of our attempts to escape the madness. We are either eternal optimists or gigantic fools...I know which I am!

A greenhouse!!! That's what I need! I'm voting for optimist, but honestly, I just like puttering around outside and feeding my family. So rewarding to serve a salad I personally grew!

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by brokenbar

Gardeners, ranchers, farmers...worlds biggest gamblers! You can do everything absolutely right and Mother nature can screw you to the wall! Some years you have "The Talk" with yourself..."I swear to God I am not growing a garden next year. I cannot justify the waste of money and time. I can buy canned veggies cheaper than i can produce them..." Then comes the winter onslaught of garden catalogs and before you know it, you have a greenhouse full of seedlings. I have no idea why we do it. We must have a gardening gene that over-rides all of our attempts to escape the madness. We are either eternal optimists or gigantic fools...I know which I am!

Well I kinda agree. We have all been there. But I don't think it is all that hard to show net positive if you grow from seed and keep costs to a minimum, even in a relatively poor year. Most people run into problems when they go for broke and try for that awesome year by spending too much.

There is that disaster year that comes along every now and then though......

[Father'sDaughter]

My first few years I just randomly started growing anything I could get seeds for that would grow well in my zone and didn't need a lot of fuss. Many of these fell into the no one here really likes them category (e.g., radishes, turnips), While others I discovered I could only grow enough of in my limited space for maybe one or two meal (e.g., carrots, peas). After that I did have a talk with myself and vowed to only grow what I know would be eaten and enjoyed, and what would produce enough for multiple meals and/or canning, drying, etc.

I'm managing to stick with it, but sometimes I still impulsively plant something without any thought of what I'll do with it once it's ready!

[livinonfaith]

Father'sdaughter, that is something that I've been working on as well. It's just so tempting in the dead of Winter when you are going through all of the seed catalogs to get caught up in the glow and promise of it all!

I have been trying to get a decent, (not stellar, just decent!) yield since I moved into this house six years ago. Every year I have run into some new crazy, garden destroying problem and, every year, I have spent lots of time and money trying to come up with a completely new plan to get over each new obstacle.

Some of my family think I'm slightly crazy. (But they still love me!) It's pretty obvious that I could easily buy regular produce at the grocery store for much less than I have paid to sweat and toil and plan and scream and curse to achieve my small crop each year.

But the feeling of seeing a perfect jewel of a tomato or pepper that you have grown yourself is kind of priceless to me. And being able to let my friends and relatives taste their first Green Zebra, KBX, Black Trifele, or (those tiny little spheres of sweetness!) White Rabbit, means the world to me. It's especially fun to see their skeptical looks at first and to watch their eyes change as they taste it.

And after changes made this year, I am closer to actually getting enough produce to be worth the annual costs. (At least the monetary costs, and I count the time and labor costs as my mental health funding! It keeps me sane!)

[MikeInCypress]

Many years ago when I first started to garden (1979) I was blessed with beginner's luck. I had 4 Better Boy and 4 Early Girl plants and I harvested enough over six weeks to have slicers for my extended family. I took over 6 lbs of Big Boys to my folks in PA for the 4th of July. And my former Mother-In-Law taught me to can. We put up 24 Pints of whole tomatoes for the off season. I thought it was easy. Then the next season I had 12 plants including the then current fav's Big Set and Floramerica plus the Better Boys and Early Girls and I had a smaller harvest. I read all the tomato books I could. Did soil tests. You name it I tried it. What I learned is you plant one plant for the Power Above, One plant for the creatures in your yard and garden and one plant for you. Some years you will be blessed with great plant growth but rotten weather so a crummy harvest. Some years you have a late frost which seems to wipe out the varieties you really wanted to try. Other years you lose a lot of seedlings and have to buy more plants from the local nursery and they are not what they are supposed to be. But then about one year in five everything goes right and you have an abundance of tasty, beautiful tomatoes to share with your friends and neighbors.

This year was close to one of those Great years, but not quite because although we did not have a cold winter and I had plants ready to set out in early February like I planned it was too cold to set most of the plants until around March 10. It stayed cool long enough to get some large slicers from Brandy Boy and some of the hearts, but the Dwarfs ran into the heat and didn't produce as expected. My harvest was probably the 4th best in the 15 years I have gardened in this location.

I am getting older and really hate winter. I think it is a time of sadness, but I know that after winter there is the glorious rebirth of the garden and, as long as I am able, my tomatoes as I look forward each year to that Great Year that is just around the corner.

MikeInCypress

[Deborah]

I'm a caregiver for dementia patients. Over the years I have been slapped, pinched, bruised, punched, scratched, hair pulled, pushed down stairs, and shoved to the ground being kicked repeatedly.
The garden is my place of peace and healing, and worth every hour and every penny.

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by Deborah

I'm a caregiver for dementia patients. Over the years I have been slapped, pinched, bruised, punched, scratched, hair pulled, pushed down stairs, and shoved to the ground being kicked repeatedly.
The garden is my place of peace and healing, and worth every hour and every penny.

Cheaper than a psychiatrist! What a job you have...I have no patience and I so admire those that do. My gardening saved my life 34 years ago when i was first diagnosed with Lupus. They told me I would be in a wheelchair in 5 years and dead in 10. They wanted me to set on the couch and die.

Even the crummy, lousy, heart-breaking years that just make you want to scream, offer me a place to unwind (some days!!!) get dirty and forget about how I feel. I am a maniac about everything and maybe it's good for me to feel a little humble and disappointed once in a while. It still sucks!

[Deborah]

Kudos to you for choosing to do all that you do-gardening, cooking, everything !
Thanks for the compliments. How could I have forgotten to add BITING???
Maybe my new bright yellow, green centered chrysanthemum is the reason !